Race and Gender in the 19 th Century

1. Race and Gender in the 19th Century • Colonial Racial Categories based upon system of castes, or castas • 19th Century system of race based on concepts of class and racial whitening • Colonial system of gender relations based upon heterosexual patriarchy • 19th century gender relations still based upon patriarchy, but are interrupted by war and the rise of the nation state

2. 18th century casta paintings

3. 19th Century concepts of whitening • Partly a response to changing status of non-whites • Partly a response to European theories of race and eugenics • In many countries with large non-white population, efforts to define racial mixing as forming a new “Cosmic”Race • In others, race is defined by class status or geographic location

4. Do all Latin American countries have the same racial realities? • Racial mixtures depend upon proportions of Indigenous, Afro-Latin American, and Europeans • Argentina, for example 25% Afro-Latin American at time of independence, and had few mestizos. By the end of the 19th century, Argentines falsely claimed that they were of European origins • Mexico had a dominant Indigenous population of many ethnicities, but denied the presence of a well established community of Afro-Mexicans, particularly in the Vera Cruz area • Status of Afro-Latin Americans dependent upon gender and emancipation laws. • Race, therefore is a mixture of reality, myth, and careful selections of truths • Money believed to “whiten” one’s status.

5. Gender realities in 19th century Latin America • What do we mean by gender? • Who defines the social responsibilities of men and women? • Religion • Law—Civil Codes • Race • Social Customs—immigrants bring own ideas

6. Patriarchy • Defined as the rights of male heads of family to control property and family members • Concept changes over time and affected by race and class • The formation of new nations prompted rethinking of patriarchy and its relation to the nation • Unlike some Middle Eastern nations, Latin American nations were never theocracies • Introduction of modern female work and education all weakened patriarchy, particularly in working class families